Responsible Business Forum (RBF) on Sustainable Development 2016, Singapore: The global complexity challenge and the role of economic institutions

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Responsible Business Forum (RBF) 2016 at Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre, Singapore.

Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2016

The 5th Responsible Business Forum (RBF) on Sustainable Development took place at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre in Singapore from 22– 24 November 2016. An event initiative by Global Initiatives, co-organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the forum pulled together more than 700 participants, over 100 speakers, with the ambition to address 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Continue reading “Responsible Business Forum (RBF) on Sustainable Development 2016, Singapore: The global complexity challenge and the role of economic institutions”

Technology convergence, systems thinking and the role of international business studies

Systems Biology Trinity

Illustration of the Trinity of Systems Biology, from the Institute of Systems Biology (ISB) and ISB’s Innovation Engine. “This virtuous cycle of biology driving technology driving computation can exist only in a cross-disciplinary environment where biologists, chemists, computer scientist, engineers, mathematicians, physicists, physicians and others can come together in teams to tackle grand challenges.” [1] Perhaps a potential complementary knowledge gap to be filled in the trinity of the innovation engine would be economic geography and the field of international business (IB) studies to investigate the facets of impact of such an innovation engine on economic policies and global value chains.
Text © CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2016

When studying trends of technological innovation, my thoughts are often drawn towards the evolution of the robotics industry and the impact of systems biology on machine design / function. Developed from the perspective of biological evolution as described in a 2006 study on self-modeling resilient machines, intelligent machines can self-diagnose its context, morph, adapt behaviour and replicate:

“Here, we describe an active process that allows a machine to sustain performance through an autonomous and continuous process of self-modeling. A robot is able to indirectly infer its own morphology through self-directed exploration and then use the resulting self-models to synthesize Continue reading “Technology convergence, systems thinking and the role of international business studies”

Singapore Management University BSM Scandinavia 2016 visit to the Swedish west coast

Swedish west coast, Singapore Management University (SMU) Business Study Mission (BSM) Scandinavia 2016

The Singapore Management University (SMU) Business Study Mission (BSM) Scandinavia 2016 group visits the Swedish west coast. The group is headed by Tom Estad, Associate Dean, Undergraduate Student Matters, SMU.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2016

For a number of years now, students of the Singapore Management University (SMU) have made it a tradition on their annual Scandinavian Business Study Missions, to visit the actual departure point of the Swedish East India Company (1731-1813) yearly voyages to China. It was in the aftermath of these trips and those of the Portuguese, Dutch and the English companies that the very state of Singapore was founded just a few years thereafter as a British trading post in 1819.

Some years back, I found myself in discussion with a professor of economic geography, of the travels with students on a geography field study trip to an ice cave in Russia where during the time of the late 1900s, travel routes between Sweden and Russia were not as accessible as they are today. Listening to the somewhat humour filled challenges of gathering about sixteen students on the trip with either poor clothing choice or sometimes even lack of proper food during the long outdoor treks, I wondered if I could myself ever pull through such an expedition. I asked the professor what motivated him to arrange this student ice cave travel to Russia? Continue reading “Singapore Management University BSM Scandinavia 2016 visit to the Swedish west coast”

Modeling Systems Thinking: knowledge as network

Gunter Pauli, founder of The Blue Economy and ZERI(Zero Emissions Research & Initiatives), and Dr. Cheryl Marie Cordeiro.

Gunter Pauli, with Cheryl Marie Cordeiro.
Gunter Pauli is author of ‘The Blue Economy’ and initiator of the Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI) network that began from 1994. ZERI was based first at the United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo, as a network of 3000 scientists searching for pragmatic solutions to poverty, climate change and competitiveness. It targeted redesigning production and consumption into clusters of industries inspired by natural systems. Pauli was in 1992, CEO of Ecover, where he built the first zero emissions factory for detergents out of wood. He has an honorary doctorate in economics from the University of Pécs, Hungary.

Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2016

In 1976, Fritjof Capra, Ph.D, a Vienna-born physicist and systems theorist published The Tao of Physics [1] that explored the way in which modern physics was changing our world perspective from mechanistic to holistic and ecological. It was this underlying influence of systemic thinking and modeling of thought I was interested in when given the opportunity at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, to meet with two distinguished individuals belonging to the realm of systemic thinkers and activists in an evening of lectures – Gunter Pauli, author of The Blue Economy [2] and founder of the Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI), and Göran Carstedt, Assar Gabrielsson Professor Continue reading “Modeling Systems Thinking: knowledge as network”

Carl G. Jung on reductionism, and its implication on homo oeconomicus in the era of big data analytics

Carl Gustav Jung, on reductionism in science, with in my view, implications for the current dominant paradigm of theories of human cognitive development, and culture. Transcript from a 1990 documentary of Jung [1] based on his works [2, 3].

“Mythology is pronouncing of a series of images that formulate the life of archetypes. So the statements of every religion, of many poets and so on, are statements about the inner mythological process, which is a necessity because man is not complete if he is not conscious of that aspect of things. So you see, a man is not complete if he lives in a world of statistical truths, he must live in a world of his biological truth, that is his biological truth that is not merely statistics. Yet our natural science makes everything into an average, reduces everything into an average, and of course, all the individual qualities are wiped out. That of course is most unbecoming, it is unhygienic, it deprives people of their specific values where they are individuals. It deprives them of the most important experiences of their life where they experience their own value, the creative background of their personality and we think we are able to be born today with no history. That is a disease. That’s absolutely abnormal. Because man is not born everyday. He is once born in a specific historical setting, with its specific historical qualities and therefore he is only complete when he has a relation to these things. It is as if you were born without eyes and ears when you are growing up without connection to the past. From the standpoint of natural science, you need no connection to the past, you can wipe it out. And that is a mutilation of the human being.” [1: 45:43-49:25] Continue reading “Carl G. Jung on reductionism, and its implication on homo oeconomicus in the era of big data analytics”

Fang’s Yin Yang perspective on culture as complementary to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions paradigm

Cheryl-Marie-Cordeiro-by-Alen-Cordic-2012-1581
[notes from an evening contemplation from 22 April 2012]

The world is getting faster and smaller. We are at an age where social media platforms over the internet are no longer activities that we engage in only during our spare time, but rather have them as integrated activities into the workings of our lives. Internet and wireless technology today allows us to traverse geographic boundaries, space and time in order to create new relations, work across cities in virtual groups with people from different time zones, where getting in touch with others from different cultural backgrounds is the norm. It is in view of this scenario of the greater interconnectedness in the world that this paper is writ, where together with other scholars [1-5], supports the call for more comprehensive perspectives in the study of national cultures.

The call towards a more dynamic and integrated perspective towards the study of culture, can be viewed as a development of theory in the field that is built upon the previous works of other outstanding scholars in the field of cultural studies that began in the 1930s with studies in cultural anthropology in relation to organisation [6-10]. Theoretical development in cultural studies at both national and organizational levels took ground during the 1970s with the expansive work of Geert Hofstede. Covering more than 70 countries with IBM employee values scores collected between 1967 and 1973, his efforts culminated in a book in 1980, Cultures Consequnces that outlined Continue reading “Fang’s Yin Yang perspective on culture as complementary to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions paradigm”

Well said, well done! The Richard C. Malmsten Award for Best IBT Master Thesis 2015

Maria Strandberg, Cheryl Marie Cordiero, Jasmin Denghani Malmsten Award 2015

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro, standing with Maria Strandberg (L) and Jasmin Dehghani (R), who are winners of the Malmsten Award 2015 for the best Master of Science thesis in International Business and Trade (IBT).
Text & Photo © S Ravi, CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2015

The Richard C. Malmsten Award for Best Thesis is awarded each year to the best thesis within each Graduate School (GS) Master Programme at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. These awards have been given since the beginning of the GBS/GS Master programmes in 1997.

This year, I’ve had the pleasure to work with Jasmin and Maria as main supervisor to their International Business and Trade (IBT) master thesis entitled Well said, Well done: Language as a Source of Power in Multinational Teams. Continue reading Well said, well done! The Richard C. Malmsten Award for Best IBT Master Thesis 2015″

Employer Branding: Strategy & Perennial Business Philosophy

CMC EB 1

Text © CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2015

The professional sphere increasingly views talent as a primary competitive enabler of a business. As more companies expand globally and shift their focus to high-growth regions, they face a growing skills and talent gaps for a variety of reasons [1]. People, are increasingly seen as a source of competitive advantage, where without the appropriate talent pool, the business might just not be a success [2,3].

Many employers therefore adopt various strategies to maintain a healthy talent pool. One such strategy, employer branding or EB, is a critical tool for talent acquisition, development and retention [4-7] in which companies begin first to focus on building an employer brand. Continue reading “Employer Branding: Strategy & Perennial Business Philosophy”

Sustainable luxury in Singapore 2014

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View from the Marina Boulevard paseo, Singapore.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore 2014

If there was a favourite place to withdraw when in Singapore, it would for the moment be the expansive Marina Bay area overlooking the waters, marked by an urban space that lacks a crowd during office hours. The slowly undulating movements of the river water taxis navigating the bay lends a different rhythm to the adrenaline rush of the skyscrapers. This difference in bio-rhythms is a contrast in symbiotic urban city living that I find interesting.

In asking for directions to get from Raffles Place (steps away from Collyer Quay) to Marina Bay Sands (MBS), I was advised by more than one person encountered, to take a taxi. I smiled and nodded and proceeded to find my way on foot, to the Marina Boulevard paseo. Continue reading “Sustainable luxury in Singapore 2014”

A magic night at CHIJMES. The Swedish Business Association Singapore (SBAS) Mid-Winter Ball, 2014

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Swedish Business Association Singapore (SBAS) Mid-Winter Ball 2014 at CHIJMES, at Victoria Street.
Text & Photo © KD Cordeiro, JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014

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Continue reading “A magic night at CHIJMES. The Swedish Business Association Singapore (SBAS) Mid-Winter Ball, 2014”